Page 44 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

LINKING: THE KEY PROCESS IN REASONING 3 1

For simple examples, such as the first one I gave, it may seem foolish to use
another format when the narrative flow (with which we are all more familiar) seems
to work well enough. Equally it may seem that, in longer examples, such as the
second one, the analytical structure only complicates the business. These obser-
vations miss the point: we need to be able to see the content and structure of
reasoning (claims and a diagram) clearly before we can learn about, and thus
smarten up, our thinking.

Learning more about the analytical structure

The analytical structure behind narrative flow

The primary purpose of the analytical structure format is to assist you in planning
your own writing. However it is very useful to look at other people's reasoning as a
way of learning about it. We can recover this analytical structure by, first, finding
the claims being made and, second, grasping the connections between them (some
signals of which can be found in the traces of reasoning represented by any linking
words or phrases). Before moving on to look at how we can use the analytical
structure in our own writing, let us use it as a tool to understanding other people's
reasoning.

Casting

The process by which we recover an analytical structure from a written argument
3
is called 'casting'. I will work through an example, step by step, and then provide
some practice examples. We will use the following natural argument—a very simple
one that I have constructed to help demonstrate this process.
Let's consider the facts. Chemical factories are very dangerous to live
nearby and one has been built near your house. You'd be crazy to put
yourself in danger, no? That's why you should move and live somewhere
else.
Before beginning, make sure you understand what you are reading and
remember that you are not doing the reasoning here and must try to stay true to
what is written, even if you disagree with it.
So, what is the first step? Earlier in this chapter, we looked at how natural
language contains 'traces' of reasoning—words that are not part of the claims, but
which represent the way the author is linking those claims together. I will under-
line the words that signal reasoning:

Let's consider the facts. Chemical factories are very dangerous to live
nearby and one has been built near your house. You'd be crazy to put your-
self in danger, no? That's why you should move and live somewhere else.